Ethan is Here and Mommy is Well

hi everyone,

This is Pj writing for Katie again.  We had a very exciting morning to say the least.  The most exciting thing is that around 12:30, baby Ethan was born a healthy 7lbs-4oz.  The details surrounding Ethan's making his way into the world are a bit crazy...

As you all probably saw on Facebook, at 10am things were moving right along.  They had begun inducing her just a couple hours before and contractions were coming every 2-3 mins, and they were strong contractions.  Despite the strong contractions, however, when the doctor came to check on Katie it was determined that she had not progressed beyond being 1 cm dilated.  The doctor could feel the baby's head, but the baby still needed to drop quite a bit to get to the "zero" position necessary for birth.  In order move things along, she went ahead and broke Katie's water.  She also inserted a device to monitor the strength of Katie's contractions in order to know how best to proceed with administering the Petocin.

During the procedure, the nurse commented that there was more blood than usual, but both the nurse and the doctor were not particularly alarmed.  When the anesthesiologist arrived to give Katie her epidural, they sat Katie up.  At that point, the nurse noticed that the bleeding was more severe than originally thought.  The nurse sent for the doctor who arrived about a 1/2 hour later.

The doctor examined Katie again, and this time was not able to feel the baby's head.  Immediately, she was concerned because what she did feel felt like the placenta.  After that, things got crazy (and very scary).  Four other people showed up very quickly along with an ultrasound machine.  The ultrasound confirmed the doctor's fears.  The placenta had rotated down beneath the baby.  It was a full placenta previa.  An emergency C-section was called for immediately and Katie was rushed into surgery.  I found out following surgery that Katie's placenta was actually 20 percent separated from the uterine wall.  By the grace of God, I am sitting with Katie right now, and she is doing fantastic.

The baby is also doing fine, but that was not a forgone conclusion following his delivery.  I could not be in the room because Katie's C-section was so rushed, they had to put her under general anesthesia.  I would find out a 1/2 later that the baby was not responsive when removed.  The heart rate never dropped in the womb, but when he was removed it took some effort to get him breathing.  I am not sure what the nurse meant by that, and I did not ask for details.  What I do know is that the expectation was for the baby to be in the nursery upon delivery and that following delivery, he was taken to the NICU.

I was able to be with him in the NICU for pretty much the entire time.  He did seem very lethargic, but became more animated as time went on.  They ran a number of tests and he passed them all.  When I left him roughly 40mins ago, he was sleeping soundly.  We expect him to be discharged from the NICU and to join Katie and I in our room in the next 30 mins.  I was only able to hold him for a minute or so thanks to the kindness of nurse who needed to give him a bath.  Other than that, our poor little boy is still waiting to be held.  They avoided letting him be held just in case there were complications that they were unaware of.  Apparently, being held can aggravate certain conditions.

We continue to covet your prayers.  This has been a hard and emotional day.  We do praise God that things seems to be OK at this point.  It is a crazy thing to think that if Katie had not had the acute sinus pain that forced us to go to the doctor yesterday, both Katie and the baby may not have survived.  It was at the doctors that we found out she had high blood pressure.  The high blood pressure is why her OBGYN sent us to the hospital last night with plans to induce this morning.  To be sure, God does work in mysterious ways.

Thanks for all of your love and support thus far.  I will keep you posted as to further developments.  Right now, I am so looking forward to holding my baby boy.  It is of great comfort to know that God also has a son, and that there was a time he longed for that son to return to him.  We don't always understand why God does what he does, but it is amazing to think that the God of this universe has entered into suffering with us.  What is even more amazing is that he is glorified in this.  He is glorified by loving his people so much.  This is the greatest hope of all.

Enjoy the pics of Ethan below.  He did find his thumb!  Talk to you soon and God bless!